FRB Top 20 Prospects: #13...Gustav Olofsson

Once upon a time there was little defensive depth in the Wild cupboard; in 2012 Minnesota took Matt Dumba with that express purpose, and added John Draeger and Daniel Gunnarson as well. This year they added Gustav Olofsson (along with a few others), who had been playing for Green Bay of the USHL.Olofsson models his game after fellow Swede Jonas Brodin and it shows; he routinely makes steady and intelligent plays from the back end. And like Brodin, we still don't know what he'll be offensively; his shot from the point needs work and while he slide along the blueline and creep in towards the net, he isn't an overly flashy orchestrator. That said, he's already 6'3" and is a superb skater- and there's the possibility he hasn't stopped growing, since his father is said to be an immense man.
There was some backlash with the Olofsson selection, as he didn't fill any sort of organizational need; but scouts I talked to loved him and thought Minnesota got tremendous value with him in the middle of the second round. He, like a couple of Wild prospects, will spend a couple years developing at the NCAA level, but there's a great chance he's in our Top 10 next year.